Today you must find out what pleases the Lord and it will certainly be in the area of being a blessing.

Today even if you risk your friendship and forfeit any benefit your friend may offer, you must choose God’s way of blessing.

Today you must hear from God what he wants you to say to this person.

Today if after much attempts to solve the problem and this friend is still relentlessly pursuing the path of destroying others then you must decide to separate. Say what you have to say and then leave. Bring warning to your friend that what a person sows they reap themselves.

Today, go home. Retrace your steps. You were not created to curse.

This is God’s way for today

The day my daughter came home from school with the words, “My teacher says I’m good at badminton” was a very good day indeed. The teacher didn’t say a lot of words but what she said changed my daughter’s view of her world.

With a few words you can make history, you can create a future, a destiny. With a few words you can erase the past and bring about the most amazing miracle, the healing of the soul.

Choose your words carefully today. Who will you meet? Decide now what kind of things you will talk about and how you will speak. If you were to bump into someone you knew what kind of conversation would come out of your mouth. Are you in the right place for an impromptu chat?

Maybe it would be a good idea to go to the place Balaam kept going back to, the Lord. For all of Balaam’s faults he knew this: All God speaks and only what He speaks I speak (v26, Message).

Can you imagine the kind of day today would be if that was true for all of us?

This is God’s way for today.

It’s not what you do but how you do it that matters.
“Go with them” v20; “God was very angry when he went” v22.
God was either contradicting himself or something was going on behind the scenes that really mattered. The New Testament helps us:
2 Peter 2: 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.
Jude 11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error;
Balaam was doing what God had permitted but over night God saw his heart had become reckless based on a culmination of selfish thoughts.

How do we keep our motivation pure?
Balaam’s decline was gradual and he entered it all on his facebook wall!

• Reject the praise of man v6, “I know you can do this because you can do anything.”
o Balaam on facebook status: “Amazing night last night. Audience loved me”

• Reject your rights v7 “This is your fee”
o Balaam: “I love what I’m doing and I get paid for it too!”

• Reject your ego, v15 “We are here again, greater number and a more prestigious level.”
o Balaam: “lol I didn’t realise I was this important! You should see me now … mixing it up with the gentry … what a privilege … pics will follow!”

• Reject the promises of man, v17 “I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say”
o Balaam: “Pray for me. If I get this amazing deal I have an open cheque book!”

• Reject selfish imagination, v18 “Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold ..”
o Balaam: “get a vision of what you want and go for it, vision is everything, i got mine, have you got one?”

Balaam is not dead. He’s on facebook.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. John 3: 14-15.
Moses staked a bronze snake and the people lived.
Jesus was staked to the cross and the whole world can live.
In 1415 John Huss, a student of Wickliffe had the skin of the crown of his head cut off with a pair of shears and then he was staked. Before being burned in the fire he answered his critics who were appealing for him to renounce his sins: “What error should I renounce, when I know myself guilty of none? For this was the principal end and purpose of my doctrine, that I might teach all men repentance and remission of sins, according to the verity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: wherefore, with a cheerful mind and courage, I am here ready to suffer death.”
In 1536 William Tyndale was tied to the stake, during the fire he cried, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
Thursday 17th May 2012 you?

The church in the non-persecuted world spends all its time in foolish debates. Should we have hymns, modern songs, organ or keyboard? Ideas about worship, what should be done, why it should be done all for the purpose of a pleasurable service for all.
Here’s a song that the Chinese House church sing:
To be a martyr for the Lord
To be a martyr for the Lord
I am willing to die gloriously for the Lord.
I am willing to take up the cross and go forward
To follow the apostles down the road of sacrifice.
That tens of thousands of precious souls can be saved
I am willing to leave all and be a martyr for the Lord.

We count it a blessing not to be persecuted, the church that is lifted up know it is the persecuted who are blessed..
We thank God for the privilege of not suffering the church that is lifted up thank God for the honour.
To bring life to others the lifted up must die.
To see others have peace the lifted up must have violence.

There is a message that is not being heard: will you be lifted up?
Maybe if we said YES maybe we would see more people LIVE.

Are you angry?
“Moses take the staff, speak to the rock and water will come out for the people.”
Moses took the staff and gathered the people at the rock. He looked at the people and something happened … anger came to the surface and he said “must we do this?” Of course the answer was “Yes because God told you to do this!” But Moses turned his attention from God and focused on the people. In anger he raised his arm and struck the rock twice.
This outburst of anger, of playing God, ended his destiny.
Anger will keep you locked up until justice is done.
Anger can lay undetected for a long period of time.
Anger nullifies your position of being right.
Are you angry?
The Academy Award-winning movie Forrest Gump has been viewed by millions. There is a line worth noting. The scene has one of the central characters, Jenny, returning to her old home after her father has died. The old farm house is dilapidated and abandoned. As she reflects on the sexual abuse that she endured as a child, she is overcome by rage and begins throwing rocks at the house. The photography is powerful as it shows her rapidly reaching for rocks and then violently throwing them at the house. Jenny finally falls to the ground in exhaustion and the scene closes with Forrest Gump sympathizing, “Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.” Many of us struggle with anger. It can stem from a variety of reasons, and some anger seems very justifiable. Yet, unresolved anger leaves us reaching and crying out for more rocks. The rage is never satisfied, and contentment is never found. Through the power of Christ we can find the strength to speak into the solution and not strike the problem. Moses struck the rock as if he was striking the people.
How you get your results is very important. Did you do it God’s way or your own way?
Some leaders and Pastors bully their congregations and berate them from the pulpit for all kinds of reasons. Little do they know that their people may arrive in the promises of God but they themselves may not.
How is always more important.
Are you angry? Let it go today.
It’s not worth it.
This is God’s way for today …

I love Tupperware. There are so many sizes and shapes. I love the sound of Tupperware when the box is closed. I love the sound of Tupperware when the box is opened. I know what you are thinking. But it’s a passion and I’m not ashamed of the Tupperware Gospel. The satisfaction element of knowing the food is fresh, no it is more than that, it is actually safe, yes, the food is safe, this is so relieving and Tupperware has done this for me.
The most important part of Tupperware is the lid. Tupperware without the lid is well … what’s the point? At the bottom of one of our cupboards at home are useless, never-to-be-used again Tupperware boxes without lids. We should throw them out but they stand there as a sign for the rest of the ineffectiveness of lid-less Tupperware containers.
Wow, I’ve just written 2 paragraphs on Tupperware! How wonderful! Okay, on with the devotion …
In the middle of this amazing chapter of God speaking to His travelling nomads on how to handle (or not as it turns out) death in the community through the water of cleansing symbolising the future work of His Son Jesus Christ, we do find a most wonderful intriguing instruction in verse 15, “every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.”
Today wherever you may be, you will work and encounter a world where being ‘open’ is the most important thing. To live today is to express yourself, be real and experience whatever is right for you. That is the world’s gospel. Our gospel is this: “keep a lid on it”.
Keep a lid on what you see.
Keep a lid on what you do in the places you go.
Keep a lid on what you hear.
Protect what is inside your life.
Preserve what God has deposited inside of you, your calling and your destiny.
Learn to say “No”.
Learn to say “That is enough for me”.
Not everything is beneficial nor constructive (1 Corinthians 10:23)
Keep a lid on it.

This is God’s way for today.

You are to bear the responsibility …
Be responsible for all the work …
Dedicated to the Lord to do the work …
I have put you in charge …

Aaron had gone through a tough time but God had vindicated him and now God hands back to him responsibility.

Responsibility is the ability to choose my response. I have 100% total responsibility for my life.
I am today a product of what I decided I would be and how I would respond to matters yesterday.
How I use my ability to respond today will determine what my life will be like tomorrow. This is a massive principle of life for God’s people.
One of the decisions I have to keep making is what Aaron was facing: overcoming the setback.

Failure? I’ve never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks.
Bill Marriott of the Marriott Hotel Chain.

“Aaron get back on track”
And you today are reading this devotion and you can be responsible, rededicated and recharged.
When joy has been taken from you, you can laugh again.
When dark clouds hover over you, you can find the light.
When humiliation has landed at your door, you can regain your dignity.

A victim of the Holocaust scratched a star of David on the wall of a house in Germany:
I believe in the sun – even when it does not shine.
I believe in love – even when it is not shown
I believe in God – even when He does not speak.

Maybe God is calling your name to say get back on track, serve Him, laugh again, reach people again, bear the load, be responsible, dedicated and take charge once again for that what God has called you to.

This is God’s way for today.

God will vindicate you.
Aaron had been opposed and when God stepped in the whole community of Israel complained even further.
Under pressure.
Opposed.
Questioned.
And yet still giving your all as Aaron did in making atonement for the community.
Yes God will vindicate you.
The staff came to be seen as the person’s social status, representing his wealth and authority. God asks for a staff from each of the 12 tribes and to write the name of Aaron on the tribe of Levi’s staff.
God has called you by name.
Not by your own merit, but grace, undeserved favour.
He has chosen you, a person with weakness and real-life tragedies.
He knows all there is to know about you.
The staff represents you.
Once dead and non-producing, non-fruitful.
Yet you have learnt to lay down your life in the presence of God and He will vindicate you.
For you are chosen by God and He will produce life and effectiveness to come from you. He will bring destiny to pass through you. You will be seen as different to every other simply because of what He is about to do.
This is His vindication.
Lay down. It will happen.
This is God’s way for today.

What were they thinking?
Korah, Dathan, Abiram and 250 well-known and established members of the governing council of Israel became insolent and rose up against Moses.
The 2 important words are BECOME and ROSE. Previously they were RESPECTFUL and FOR Moses. They didn’t have to end up buried by an earthquake or burnt alive during the altar sacrifice. But they were people who were BECOMING and people who were RISING and sometimes the temptation when you are on the UP is to do something that can only be described as a moment of madness.
Samson rose to be the world’s strongest man and ended up becoming a brilliant clown.
Uzziah one of Judah’s greatest kings and leaders ended his life in isolation.
Pride does lead to a downfall.
Now what was the reaction from Moses?
His immediate response was in contrast to their RISE. He fell facedown.
If only they had fallen down first and brought their complaint to God.
If only they had learnt that to lead is to serve.
If only they knew that the only way UP is DOWN.
This is God’s way for today.

Whilst the Israelites were in the desert …
trying to follow the guidance of God …
focusing on the Promised Land …
submitting to Moses …
obedient to the commandments of God.
Whilst they diligently kept the Sabbath …
stopping all work to rest and focus on Him …
refusing to even light a fire in their homes …
not even cooking on that day …
choosing to stay inside their homes …
as the sign of God’s covenant with them …
everyone knowing the result would be the death penalty if it wasn’t kept.
There was one man who decided he knew better.
This man focused on his own desires.
This man disobedient, unwilling to keep the Sabbath, turned his back on God, snubbed the sign of the covenant, bringing insult on God’s grace and the life of the community.
What was he thinking?
Why did he have such arrogance?
Why was he so selfish and so defiant?
Why was he so against the whole community?
We may never know.
But we know his outcome.
If you live with only you in mind something will eventually die and it will probably be something to do with you.

This is God’s way for today